If I wasn't involved in this hip-hop sh*t, I'd probably be breakin' the law to eat and feed my family and maintain the lifestyle that I'm used to.

Killing and gangbanging, that's just wrong.

Your parents are supposed to tell you to make decisions that are gonna help you and that'll have a positive effect on your life and your well-being.

My thing is that I don't give no person that much power over my path that I'm walking. Not one person can make or break what I'm doing, except me or God.

I kinda came into my manhood, or what I thought was my adulthood, early. I had to show up, and I had to make sure I had gas money, food money, rent money, clothes money - everything was on me, startin' at that age, so that's what led me to start hustlin', that's what led me to start to try to find ways to fend for myself. And once I did that, I was full-time, bein' in the street, and, bein' in the street, it's cold. It's the way the streets operate, and you have to adapt to that.

My mom is American, so I was raised in her household in my formative years. But as I got older, my pops tried to keep me involved with the culture by telling me the stories of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, how he came to America, and about our family back home, because all that side of my family, my aunties, grandparents, is in Africa.

And it's possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.